TRACKLISTING
HANDEL: Rodelinda

Alan Curtis is one of the pioneers of early music as an interpreter, editor, and as a specialist in old instruments. Being part of the movement for almost half a century, he has brought about some significant revivals with his performances all over Europe and America. His recordings of Handel operas have won plaudits throughout the classical music press.

Rodelinda was greeted as a masterpiece when it was premiered in London in 1725 and is still one of the top three most-performed operas by Handel. This recording is Curtis' first Handel opera for Deutsche Grammophon and features two of the hottest young stars of today's Baroque opera scene - Simone Kermes and Marijana Mijanoviè. Both are no strangers to the Archiv label and have been hailed by the press worldwide as the rising Baroque divas of the new century.

TRACKLISTING
GLUCK: Paride ed Elena

This new recording of Paride ed Elena (Paris and Helena) was recorded during a series of celebrated concert performances in London in October 2003. The neglected masterpiece belongs to the cycle of Gluck's Italian reform operas, together with the ever-popular Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste.

The role of Paris, with more than half a dozen beautiful arias plus duets and trios, offers Magdalena Ko?ená everything she needs to charm listeners with her exceptional singing - so does the role of Helena for Susan Gritton, a long-standing ally of McCreesh and the Gabrielis.

The Daily Telegraph (London) wrote: 'Gritton and Kozená were marvellous as the royal lovers, projecting the palpitating, extreme emotions of the text without falling into parody...The Gabrieli Players played with tremendous verve and unanimity, and Paul McCreesh made a fluent and supple conductor.'

Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort & Players offer a splendid accompaniment - as The Spectator (London) puts it: 'But more important . . . was the presence of a conductor of genius, for McCreesh is certainly that. . . . from the moment he launched his players into the galvanising overture it was clear that this was going to be a performance with no dead notes . . .'

ARTISTS
Jane Sheldon, soprano
Ian Munro, piano
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra / Ola Rudner

TRACKLISTING
Wild Swans Concert Suite
Piano Concerto No. 2
Mythic

The haunting and evocative music of Elena Kats-Chernin's music to the ballet Wild Swans captivated audiences around Australia when it was first performed by The Australian Ballet and broadcast on ABC TV. This recording features the ballet suite performed by soprano Jane Sheldon and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as part of the acclaimed Australian Composer Series

MARKETING PLANS
Extensive reviews and airplay
Print advertising in Limelight magazine
National radio promotion on ABC Classic FM

ARTISTS
Karin Schaupp, guitar
Sue-Ellen Paulsen, cello
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra / Richard Mills

TRACKLISTING
Cello Dreaming
Prelude
In the Valley
On High Hills
At Quamby Bluff
Nourlangie
Music for Bali

Part of the Tasmanian Symphony's Australian Composer Series, this release is the first in the series from Australia's most distinguished and prolific composer Peter Sculthorpe. Calmly lyrical and sentimental, Sculthorpe draws influences from indigenous Australian music as well as the rugged beauty of the Australian landscape.

MARKETING PLANS
Extensive reviews and airplay
Print advertising in Limelight magazine
National radio promotion on ABC Classic FM

ARTISTS
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Sebastian Lang-Lessing

TRACKLISTING
MARSCHNER: Der Vampyr (The Vampire)
MENDELSSOHN: The Hebrides, Fingal's Cave
SCHUMANN: Manfred, Op. 115
NICOLAI: The Merry Wives of Windsor
WEBER: Die Freischütz
BEETHOVEN: Leonore, Op. 72
MENDELSSOHN: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21

This recording explores the Romanticists obsession with the fantastic and the supernatural by looking at seven overtures. These works were openings to dramas or operas, and are typical of the types of programmatic writing that was popular in the nineteenth century.

MARKETING PLANS:
Extensive reviews and airplay
Print advertising in Limelight magazine
National radio promotion on ABC Classic FM

The two chart topping albums Praise Vol 1 & 2 are now released together in a special deal for Mother's Day. Buy 1 get 1 free!

Praise Vol 1& 2 captures the uplifting spirit of choral and vocal music. Combining traditional hymns, great classics and wonderful sacred music, these albums celebrate the inspirational power of the human voice.

Performers include Sara Macliver, Yvonne Kenny, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Cantillation, Choir of King's College, Shu-Cheen Yu, Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral and many more.

Marketing Plans
Buy one get one free!

The two hugely popular bestsellers, Elizabethan Serenade Vols 1 & 2 are now packaged together in one set for Mother's Day. Showcasing those tunes you used to love, they contain some of the best of British Light Music.

Elizabethan Serenade Vol 1 includes In a Persian Market, Rose of Picardy, Knightsbridge March as well as the quintessential Elizabethan Serenade itself.

The long awaited sequel (Elizabethan Serenade Vol 2) contains sparkling and bubbly British favourites including the music of Eric Coates, Ronald Binge and others. Here you'll find the theme to Brideshead Revisited, The Dam Busters March, Cornish Rhapsody and many more.

Marketing Plans
Buy one get one free!

ARTISTS
Nelson Freire, piano

TRACKLISTING
CHOPIN: 12 Études, Op.10
Barcarolle Op.60
Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor Op.35

The keenly anticipated second album of Chopin from incomparable Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire reveals a pianist of rare insight and power as well as breathtaking technical maturity.

It has been said that great Chopin performances require elegance, passion, glamour and strength - qualities which are all evident in the supreme performances of Nelson Freire.

The Chopin disc which marked the beginning of Nelson Freire's association with Decca (470 2882) was greeted worldwide with tremendous critical acclaim and amazement that so great a pianist could be so little known. Freire was described as classical music's best kept secret .

Chopin's Études are central to nineteenth century piano repertoire. Never for a moment does he let us forget that these are studies - in arpeggios, octaves, thirds or sixths - nor does he allow the pianist any rest or complacency.

The famous Funeral March of the Second Sonata Op. 35 was composed in 1837, two years before the rest of the Sonata, but its heroic sense of elegy was to stay with Chopin and echo through the dark poetry of the companion movements. It is not surprising that this has become one of his best-loved works. There's a surprise embedded in Freier's interpretation of the 'Funeral March' movement!

Finally, the Barcarolle (1845-46), an idealised Nocturne, is for many among the most miraculous of all Chopin's works. The barcarolle rhythm supports a sumptuous decorated melody and carries the listener along on one of his most revelatory magic carpet-rides.

ARTISTS
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Marc Minkowski, conductor

TRACKLISTING
RAMEAU: Une Symphonie imaginaire
Ouverture (Zaïs)
Scène funèbre (Castor et Pollux)
Air tendre (Les Fêtes d'Hébé)
Tambourins I & II (Dardanus)
Air tendre pour les Muses (Le Temple de la Gloire
Contredanse en Rondeau (Les Boréades)
Air gracieux (La Naissance d'Osiris)
Gavottes I & II pour les Heures et les Zéphirs (Les Boréades)*
Orage (Platée
Prélude (Les Boréades)*
La Poule (Concert no 6 from 'Six Concerts en sextuor')
Musette en Rondeau · Tambourin en Rondeau (Les Fêtes d'Hébé)
Ritournelle (Hippolyte et Aricie)
Rigaudons I & II (Naïs)
Danse des Sauvages (Les Indes galantes)
Entrée de Polymnie (Les Boréades)*
Chaconne (Les Indes galantes)

Une symphonie imaginaire is Minkowski's own collection of 17 orchestral pieces from 11 of Rameau's operas, compiled into a dramatic cycle that represents both the world of French Baroque dance music and the origins of French symphonic music.

What emerges is a programme that is as dramatic as it is delightful. Earlier live performances of the suite have been hailed by the critics.

The Daily Telegraph (London) wrote: '... here was no puzzling, religious world-view to get in the way of a suite of Rameau's most delectable dances compiled by Minkowski. Here you could just enjoy the parade of colours and rhythms, played with amazing vividness and sparkling virtuosity'.

ARTISTS
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado

TRACKLISTING
MAHLER: Symphony No. 6

DG is continuing its prestigious series of Mahler symphonies with Claudio Abbado - who makes 'music turn into light', as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (June 2004) puts it.

Mahler's Sixth is the symphony most praised by Mahlerians and a test for the listener's hi-fi! Sometimes titled the 'Tragic', it opens with a funeral march followed by music of energetic lyricism which Mahler described as a representation of his young wife.

The quick changes from extremely lyrical to deeply dramatic and violent music are a special feature of this symphony, as well as the unusual instrumentation and effects Mahler employed, including offstage cowbells, very deep bells, and in the last movement devastating 'hammer blows' intended to sound like an axe striking into wood.

Claudio Abbado's return to the Berliner Philharmoniker was not only triumphant but also hailed as the 'return of the former King' by the Berliner Zeitung (June 2004).